Dabo not buying that SEC grind wore out Bama

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"Listen, the SEC is a great conference, but I don't think they've been as deep the last few years," Swinney told ESPN. "I think they've had two or three really good teams and then it's kind of been hit or miss from there. It's an awesome league, for sure, and I know people say that Alabama was tired because they went through the grind and had to play all these teams. Well, they won by an average of 33.1 points per game [going into the playoff], so they ought to be well-rested.

"My thing on that is, 'Are you serious? They're tired?' Then you look at Clemson, and we won 12 games by 20-plus. Who really challenged Alabama in the SEC? They didn't get challenged by anybody until the Georgia game [for the SEC championship]."

"People get amnesia," Swinney said. "A lot of folks make a lot of bold claims early in the year and then they forget, and there's a lot of excuses when it doesn't go that way. Five, six or seven years ago, the rhetoric was that an ACC team is not going to win a national championship because they don't play anybody during the season, so then they get to the postseason and are just not prepared for the big, bad boys.

"Well, now, they've flipped it around, and the only reason we're winning is because we don't play anybody in the ACC. ... You don't just come out of a soft conference and haven't played anybody and all of a sudden go out and beat Notre Dame and Alabama. I mean, give me a break. Now that happens in other conferences. I've seen that, people that get propped up, and then I watch the tape and go, 'They ain't played what we've played.'"

"At the end of the day, I'm never going to be the guy running around with the flag saying, 'We're the best conference in the world, the greatest conference,'" Swinney said. "I've never done that and never will do that. All I do is stand up and say, 'Hang on. We don't take a backseat to anybody.' The SEC is the exact same way. If I were over there, I'd be saying the same thing."

For the second straight season, Clemson will play two nonconference games against SEC schools in 2019 -- Texas A&M and state rival South Carolina.

"I keep hearing that Alabama was worn down by this gauntlet they went through," Swinney said. "I'm like, 'What game did they get challenged in?' And the response is, 'They played in the SEC.' Well, we played Alabama, Texas A&M and South Carolina, three SEC teams, and one of our toughest games was Syracuse. Our quarterback got hurt in that game, and we found a way to win. That [Clemson] team last year was a dominant team, and it's just fascinating to me to see all the stuff out there."

“I think it's good for college football that you get the two best teams there," Swinney said. "If it happens to be Clemson and Alabama three out of the last four years, isn't that what we want, the two best teams? A lot of people have opportunities to get into the mix. But at the end of the day, you've got to earn it. That's just the way it is. Take your hat off to what they've done at Alabama and what these guys have done here.

"I don't sit around and worry about it. I'm never going to apologize for trying to be the best that we can be. That's what I was hired to do."

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